


A Collaborative Effort

by oldmountainsoul, pomegrenadier



Category: Guild Wars, Guild Wars 2
Genre: Cultural Differences, Friendship, Gen, Interspecies Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Research, SCIENCE!, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, nerd children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 21:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7773352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldmountainsoul/pseuds/oldmountainsoul, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pomegrenadier/pseuds/pomegrenadier
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A meeting of minds in the libraries of Divinity's Reach marks the beginning of a beautiful friendship and collaboration with the potential to change Tyria forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Collaborative Effort

**Author's Note:**

> Catherine is a Lich who was born pre-Searing. Grio is an asura scientist who left Rata Sum due to a conflict of conscience with regards to ethical research practices. This is the story of how they became friends, and their many misadventures in Divinity's Reach together. (shameless fluff adapted from RP)

Mechanicist Grio considers himself extraordinarily fortunate that he has been allowed use of the royal palace's libraries; though the shelves and ladders were most certainly made for humans and are all but unreachable by an asura of his height, there are still many rare and marvelous tomes at levels he can reach, and he grabs as many as he can, stumbling around the massive chamber until he has a stack nearly as tall as he is, books wobbling about in front of him and threatening to topple over his head.

 

Catherine has been lurking in the Ascalonian history section for the better part of the morning, flipping through volume upon volume of academically interesting but ultimately useless accounts of events she'd barely known were occurring the first time around. A stroke of good fortune: she finally stumbled upon a biography of King Adelbern that isn't too sensationalistic. She’s combing through it for references to Magdaer's origins when her habitual pacing is rudely interrupted by a sudden collision with something so small that it evaded detection until it’s far too late.

 

She trips. Her book goes flying. Someone yelps, and an entire stack of books thuds to the floor as she and a tiny asura both tumble after them.

 

"Oof! My sincerest apologies, I seem to have made a severe tactical error in my excitement at being allowed to peruse the shelves here--" Grio stammers, picking himself up and reaching to offer the human a hand, then realizing that she's nearly twice his height, and he probably couldn't pull her into a sitting position, much less to her feet. (By the Alchemy, he hopes she's alright--do falls hurt humans more, since they have so unreasonably far to fall when they do?)

 

Catherine huffs out something like a laugh. "It's fine; I should be apologizing to you. Wasn't paying any attention," she says, sitting up--but he's still offering a hand, so she shakes it politely. That's still customary, isn't it? Unless it's changed. Ugh. Her next stop will have to be those etiquette and manners books Krytan children scoff at.

 

In any case, though . . . "Are you all right?" she asks, since the living tend to be delicate and prone to damage at the slightest inconvenience.

 

"Oh! Oh, yes of course. I'm quite all right," he says sheepishly, looking down at his hand when the human stops shaking it. "I didn't fall very far," he chuckles. "But the books, the books!" he says suddenly, dropping to his knees and gathering them into a pile, checking to make sure none of them were damaged in the tumble. _Understanding of the Arcane, Magic and Industry, History of the Bloodstones,_ and . . . _Adelbern: Last King of Ascalon._ That can't be his . . .

 

Catherine picks up her book and sighs at its beautifully bound cover. "Perhaps I should have followed those rumors about Orr instead," she mutters--weren't there legends about Magdaer being a gift from the Six Gods? Would a Krytan library even have the references she'd need to verify . . .?

 

But then she glances at the asura's selections, and raises an eyebrow. "Fundamental forces of magic, eh?"

 

"I have studied technology and its intersection with magic all my life, but there is much my people still do not know about it. And your Queen Jennah is one of the most magically gifted people to ever live--perhaps since Lyssa herself, whom your people worship as a god. What better place to learn about the nature of magic than from the people who seem to have learned something my own have not yet?" Grio replies, not looking up from the work of dusting off and  neatly stacking his books.

 

Catherine blinks. "Any particular areas of interest? Magical technology is a very wide field, to my knowledge."

"The source of magic," Grio says, taking one book off the top of his stack and sitting down on the floor. "Or, more precisely, the Bloodstones and the Elder Dragons. It's been theorized that dragons actually consume magic, but why would magic not follow the laws of matter? It can't simply disappear or be destroyed. Somehow, it must be changing. And somehow there must be a way to change it back."

 

Oh, _hello._ Catherine grins. "That's . . . actually related to my own research. Draconic corruption and the limitations of its efficacy suggest that whatever change magic undergoes when dragons become involved, it's neither absolute nor impossible to resist--which, as you said, makes a reversal well within the realm of possibility. I tend to focus on the Risen, myself, but the principle applies to all dragon minion forms--if, for instance, Ascalonian ghosts are immune to Zhaitan's corruption, what causes it, and can it be reverse-engineered?"

 

Grio's ears perk up. "Fascinating! I wasn't aware of the incorruptible nature of Ascalon's ghosts, but that puts my work in an entirely different light, perhaps even gives me a lead; anything can be reverse-engineered, after all--Might I borrow that when you're done?" he says excitedly, pointing at the human's book. "Er, my apologies, how ineffably rude of me! I have my own books to study first and, erm--" he clears his throat. "I haven't even introduced myself. I am Mechanicist Grio, or Grio Mecha if you prefer. Perhaps we could keep each other abreast of our personal research? I imagine it'd be quite enlightening."

 

Catherine laughs, surprising herself. "I--yes, I'd--my name is Catherine Ardelon. It's an absolute pleasure to meet you, Mechanicist Grio, and I would be delighted to share my findings with you." She taps _Last King of Ascalon's_ cover. "This, however, is . . . probably not the best place to start. I'm attempting to track down Magdaer--or Sohothin, either sword will do--in hopes of determining exactly what the Foefire did to its victims. Hopefully the corruption-resisting aspects can be isolated and replicated for use defending against Zhaitan, or the other dragons, without . . . well." She looks down. "Without replicating the Foefire itself," she finishes, softer.

 

"My specialty is lab safety and ethical experimentation. If it's possible to safely replicate, I'm sure our combined intellects can find the way." Grio frowns. He's not well versed in human expressions but. . . Catherine seems very sad. Oh. _Oh._ "You're Ascalonian, aren't you," he says, reaching out and gently shaking Catherine's hand. (That is what she did earlier, when she thought he was hurt, wasn't it? Perhaps it's a human custom?) "I understand. My people lost their home and much of their history, too."

  
She cracks a smile as she accepts the handshake--maybe it's actually a gesture of comfort, now? It is very comforting. "Thank you, Grio." Elder dragons or eldritch magic, the result is the same. "Perhaps one day we'll both see our homelands restored."


End file.
